Search For The Time, Before It Leaves Without You
by Jac Danvers
Summary: Do we control the decisions we make? Or does fate have a greater plan for us? A chance encounter on the LA freeway changes the course of Ana and Dan's lives, setting them on their course with destiny and the island. For LostInLost18's Fic Challenge.


**Disclaimer: I continue to not own lost. It is a major issue in my life. Also, some credit for the pairing in this story must be given to LostInLost18, because without this challenge, I would have never attempted a story with these two! Title comes from the song "She's Got You High" by Mumm-Ra.**

**Also, I have definitely taken some liberties with the timeline here. For the sake of the story, just go with it! It's appreciated! :) **

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><p>Fifty-eight.<p>

Sixty.

Forty-eight.

_Old folks_, she thought from the driver's seat, one eye on the radar, the other on her partner. In the passenger's seat, Big Mike was dosing off, jolting up out of his seat only when the most definitely non-regulation cell phone in his right pocket vibrated. Ten to one it was Jeanine, his girlfriend.

Fiancé?

In all honesty, Ana Lucia Cortez couldn't remember if he'd finally popped the question or not. Mike had shown her the ring, and she'd been taken aback- not just because the pure white diamond was at least ten carats (_where had he gotten the money for that?_), but because he'd chosen her of all people to tell. Sure they were partners, she trusted the guy with her life. But if there was one thing Ana Lucia didn't do, it was share.

Unconsciously, her hand slipped over her stomach. Glancing aside, she wondered if Mike suspected anything, but he was too focused trying to spell words correctly in the text message. His big fingers most definitely did not agree with the tiny QWERTY keyboard of his phone.

Only Danny knew there was a baby on the way, and they'd both been thrilled- Danny in an outward, almost bubbly way, ready to call everyone they knew on the phone, picking out room colors, taking bets on the gender. Ana's joy was self-contained. Internalized. They were night and day, but she and Danny worked.

_Maybe I should ask Mike to give him some tips on engagement ring shopping, _she thought with a smile, momentarily allowing her feminine side to get the best of her.

Fifty-seven.

Fifty-six.

Fifty-nine.

Speed trap duty sucked, but it gave her time to think. Time to sit back, relax… and pray for a more exciting call.

As if reading her thoughts, Mike chimed in next to her, "This blows."

"Tell me about—"

Her response was interrupted by the crackling voice of Adam, the station operator, over the radio. "We have a BT in District seventeen, down on Fifth and West, need all available on duty stat."

"There we go," Big Mike said, tossing his cell phone aside, with a grin on his face. He grabbed the radio. "Roger that, Aaron, this is car sixteen, we're—"

It wouldn't have registered if she hadn't been looking at the radar detector. The car was there and gone in a flash, just barely registering. Ninety-seven.

"Aw no," Mike muttered, releasing his grip from the radio.

"We gotta," Ana said. Just as disappointed.

"But a bomb threat…"

Ana snorted. "Our luck, it's probably some dumbass kid trying to get the day off from school. Switch on the siren." She picked up the radio herself. "We've got a traffic check. 10-86. Should be routine. Call us out on the next."

Above her the siren began to sore. Ana released the emergency break, pounded on the gas pedal, and sped off behind the beat up red Civic.

OOO

"Is she breathing?" Daniel rasped into the cell phone. He'd been hyperventilating after the first call, had still been when he got into the car. _Idiot, idiot, idiot. _Never before had such an all encompassing fear taken hold of him. Never.

"Daniel, are you driving?" he heard his mother respond over the speaker phone, the typical calm superiority that dripped from her voice barely indicating there was a crisis. "You know the doctor's say you aren't to drive."

He could barely contain his anger. The agitation, the shock, the shear enormity of his error… everything had built up in the last twenty minutes, speeding down the California freeway in a last desperate attempt to make the final flight of the day back to Oxford. Mild mannered scientist? Not when the woman he loved, the woman he promised would come to no harm in the course of their time travel experiments, was lying in his lab, mind jumping uncontrollably across the eons.

"Damnit mother, I asked if she was breathing!" he shouted into the phone.

There was a pause, one he would say was filled with remorse if it was any other person. But Eloise did not feel remorse, because life was a plan, everything was a plan. And anything that stood in the way of the plan- fun, music, Theresa- was eliminated.

_If she kills her… if she lets her die…_

There was no time to think about it now. Glancing at the speedometer, he saw it read ninety. Definitely pushing it on the highway, but he had everything to lose if he missed this flight.

Theresa had everything to lose.

"She's breathing Daniel. But I don't know how much longer," he heard his mother reply at the other end of the phone, voice soft. The fact that Eloise seemed worried- that was how he knew things were truly bad. "I can't tell how long she's been like this. She didn't leave a record of when she went under."

He groaned internally. _That's because I was the one who put her under,_ he answered silently, foot falling harder onto the gas pedal.

It was stupid. Not even scientific, for the love of God, but a whim. An idiotic whim they both took on without thinking it through. They would meet in LA, Theresa traveling by mind, Daniel physically flying there. A test to see if they could expand their already crazy work on time travel to an atrociously insane level- teleportation.

He'd put her under before he left, but she never arrived. And that was when he called his mother to search the lab.

That was when she found Theresa dying.

She was displaced in time, lost, without a constant to keep her grounded. Whatever time period she was in, he clearly did not exist. From the moment she'd fallen off the map he'd started calculating. This flight was his one chance, his only chance, to save Theresa. Even _that _was pressing it. Thirteen hours to fly from LA to Oxford.

And then the sirens started.

OOO

"You takin' driver's side, Ana?" Mike asked, checking his holster despite the fact that it was likely a run of the mill dumbass trying to showboat for his friends.

"You know that's how we roll," she responded with a wink. She liked playing the role of tough cop. Mike liked to be the intimidating backup. It was a system that worked for them in the field and questioning suspects in custody, and they weren't likely to break from tradition anytime soon.

The window of the Civic was rolled down already and she could see the driver had both hands clearly on the wheel. Good- they weren't dealing with a complete idiot. Just a partial one. Only one person was in the car, even better. It decreased the risk of an altercation, albeit slightly. Hopefully this would just be a quick ticket before getting back on the prowl.

Nearing the window, she heard the man muttering to himself, and she felt her hopes sink. _Great, a crazy,_ she mused, silently communicating with Mike. Clearly he understood her, as he reached a hand for his holster. He didn't draw, but it didn't hurt to be prepared.

On heightened alert, she approached the window. "Sir, do you know why we pulled you over?"

"I know, I know I was speeding," he stuttered out. He was a scrappy white guy, with long brown hair that looked like it hadn't seen a brush in months and a beard that rivaled some of history's greats for the most unkempt. He was perspiring heavily, shaking a bit, and Ana wondered if he was supposed to be on meds of some sort. "You just.. you don't understand. I have a plane to catch. It's urgent, I have to—"

"Sir, a lot of people have planes to catch, you don't see them doing ninety plus on the freeway. I'm going to need to see your license and registration." It sucked, really it did, missing your plane. But the law was the law and Ana Lucia was there to uphold it. She'd be tempted to let the guy off if it was ten or fifteen over. But thirty-five over the speed limit? That she couldn't let fly.

"You don't understand, my girlfriend is sick. She's dy—"

She shook her head. "The sooner we do this, the sooner you can get on the road sir."

"But I—" he stammered, sounding weaker by the minute. She wondered if it was he who was actually sick. Or going to be sick.

"You heard Officer Cortez," Mike boomed from the opposite side of the vehicle, arms crossed across his chest.

OOO

Hands drenched with sweat, it seemed to take hours to withdraw his driver's license from the plastic holder in his wallet. In his head, a clock slowly counted down, the tick, tick, tick growing louder with each second to remind him that if he didn't make the plane, he would lose Theresa.

"Registration too, please," the officer reminded.

"It's in the glove compartment," he mumbled, not wanting to risk opening it and having her think he was taking out a weapon.

"Go ahead and get it then," she replied calmly, though he saw her hand move to her gun.

Dan quickly grabbed the paper from its spot at the front of the owner's manual and handed it to the cop. Trying to distract himself from the ticking time bomb that was his internal clock, he looked the woman over. She was of Hispanic descent, dark black hair pulled back in a severe ponytail beneath her uniform hat. Her eyes were brown, and she wasn't pretty in the traditional sense, though he couldn't say she was ugly either. She came across as the tomboy in the schoolyard who eventually grew into her looks but never quite figured out what to do with them.

"Why the rush?" she asked, surprising him out of his reverie. There was a note of sympathy in her voice, or at least he hoped that's what he heard. "Somethin' about your girlfriend?"

Dan sighed, running a hand through his hair as she critically looked over his paper work. "She's sick… she's… she's dying. I'm trying to catch a flight home to Oxford, but I don't… I just don't…"

He couldn't finish. He couldn't think negatively. Not now. Theresa was depending on him. And if he fell apart, if he lost faith, there would be no point in trying.

Daniel had to try.

The officer sighed, and looked across the car at her partner. From his viewpoint, he could see the other officer, a blonde man with a heavy blonde mustache, shrug his shoulders. Unsure.

Surely there was _some _sympathy for his predicament. Even if it was all his own fault.

"I have to check your record. If you don't have any priors, I can let you off with a warning this time. But we have to check your record first."

The woman passed the paperwork to the other officer, who returned to the patrol car. Leaning against the car, Dan watched impatiently as she crossed her arms. Lower than before. Across her stomach.

She was pregnant.

"How long has your girl been sick?" she asked mindlessly. Small talk while they waited, obviously, but Dan was grateful for it. In the back of his head, he could hear Theresa's voice. From far beyond, her voice rang through his mind. Angry, betrayed, and blaming him for the loss of her life.

It wasn't too late. He had to believe that.

"It was sudden," he replied quietly, eyes darting to his clock. He still had an hour and a half before the departure. If he didn't hit any traffic. If he could evade the police from here on out… it was a long shot.

"I don't know what I'd do if I lost my Danny," she said. "He's the real deal. You don't find that often in life. When you get back to her, you better spend every last minute with her. Make sure you tell her all the trouble you went through to get there." The officer smiled, giving him a wink. For a moment, he could see the woman, and not the hardened cop.

Dan fed off her optimism. He _would _get back to Theresa. He _would _bring her back to reality. And that was it. The experiments with time were over. Theoretical physics was much safer than tempting fate. He could still publish, still get his Nobel.

Pushing his worry aside, trying to appease the cop in case any of his time jumping had landed him a record he didn't know about, he made an attempt at friendly conversation. "How long have you known your pregnant?"

OOO

If Ana Lucia had been drinking something, she probably would have spit it across the room. She'd attempted conversation to calm the man down- if she let him go with his nerves still on high, then he'd be a danger to himself and everyone else on the damned highway, and she and Mike would be paying for it with their jobs. Never had she expected to conversation to turn back on her.

"How the hell did you know I was pregnant?" she asked, trying (and failing) to keep the surprise out of her voice.

He nodded, indicating her arms across her stomach and she felt herself blushing. _Get your head on straight, Ana. You're on duty. _

"About a week ago we found out. Three months along now. It'll be our first," she replied with a smile, noting that the man's death grip on the steering wheel had loosened. He was still visibly nervous and shaken, which considering the situation with his girl was to be expected, but he was calmer now than before.

"Congratulations. You must be excited."

She nodded. "Thank you, we are. Haven't officially told anyone yet, but we will soon."

"ANA!" she heard Mike call from behind her. "We got a call. Armed robbery. We have to go." He jogged to back to her side, and handed the man in the car his papers.

"Now slow down. It's not rush hour. You can still make it to the airport. You gotta be in one piece to get back to your girl. Don't let me hear on the radio that someone else picked you up, alright? Take care of yourself."

She tapped the side of the car gently as she walked away, eager to get to some real meaty police work. Just barely did she hear the call out the car window in response: "You take care of yourself too."

By the time she seated herself back in the patrol car, the Civic was gone.

OOO

In the end, it hadn't mattered that the police woman didn't ticket him.

The freeway was jam packed, bumper to bumper. A three car pileup, he'd discovered, when he walked to the front of the traffic line to see what the situation was. Didn't matter that he'd abandoned his car half a mile back in the middle of its lane. They weren't going anywhere until the bodies had been removed, the injured brought to the hospital, and the wreckage cleared.

As he walked away from the smoke-riddled scene, he tapped on the window of a car near the front of the pack. The woman looked up from where she was typing into a laptop computer. Clearly, the accident was not going to keep her from working. She rolled down the window. "What?" she snipped, her lips pursed.

"How long ago did this happen?"

"About ten minutes ago. Now do you mind? I'm trying to make a deal with Tokyo here?"

When Daniel reached his car, his cell phone was buzzing. The engine of the old car was starting to smoke from being left on in the heat. The humidity had built up from keeping the windows closed and the air conditioner off. He ignored it all.

Ten minutes. Ten minutes where his rush, his stupidity had gotten him pulled over. Had he not been so careless, he would have made it back to her. Had he not been so stupid, so eager to test his theories, she wouldn't have had to die this way.

Head falling against the steering wheel, Daniel wept. For himself. For his research. But most of all, he wept for Theresa.

OOO

"Hold it right there, kid!" Ana shouted, pointing her gun at the kid. Glancing around her, she didn't have a visual on Mike. Probably still inside the complex. She was alone, in a dark ally, with a potential perp. She didn't like it.

The young man threw his arms up, looking nervous. Not the kind of nervous that screamed "I'm guilty." More the brand of nervous of a person who had never seen a gun before in their life.

"I'm a student! I swear! Let me grab my ID, I can show you. It's in my wallet, I can show you my ID!"

The terrified look on the kid's face gave her some faith that he was being honest. She lowered her gun. "Alright. I want you take it out and show me. Slowly."

The first impact took her by surprise. She never even heard the gun go off. By the second the pain registered. Pain searing across her entire body, despite the vest protecting her body. The third connected with her stomach, and with her last bit of energy, she grabbed it, trying to protect the baby.

With the fourth and final bullet the world had gone back. As consciousness escaped her, Ana Lucia wondered how God could leave her with a fate like this. She wondered how, if she could go back, if she could change it. If they'd responded to that first call… if they never pulled the Civic over. She could have changed her fate.

But in the deepest recesses of her mind, she knew she couldn't.

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><p><strong>Why hello there! It's been a while! But I've returned to the realm of fanfic. I am officially (OFFICIALLY!) done with classes forever! Just passed my graduate school qualifying exams, which means two things: I'm officially a PhD candidate and (more importantly) I HAVE TIME TO WRITE AGAIN! Huzzah! Anyways, I'm feeling a bit rusty, so this story is probably not my best work. Any grammaticalspelling errors are mine and mine alone, and constructive criticism, as always, is greatfully accepted. It's great to be back writing again! Best wishes! Jac**


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